Originally Posted by
MikeJulietHotel
Back to the OP.
I only ever learned to land the aircraft when I mastered the final approach...when it felt like I was sliding down final on rails, I all of a sudden found that I could miraculously land the aircraft.
I think MJH makes a very important point. Pilots with multiple hundred or thousands of hours pilots should be able to land off pretty much any approach. However it is my experience as an active ab initio instructor that when first learning to land the students had the most success mastering the landing if the aircraft arrived off of a stabilized approach.
By stabilized approach I mean that from 500 feet AGL to the start of the flare the aircraft was in the final approach configuration with landing flap, around 1000 to 1300 RPM (aircraft dependent) and
most importantly had the correct pitch attitude to hold the correct speed and was trimmed for that attitude. This gave a stable sight picture and adding or subtracting power allowed for small glide path corrections with the pitch attitude remaining constant. The pitch attitude would then be held until it was time to start the roundout at which time the throttle was closed and the nose raised to the landing attitude and held there until the mainwheels touched.
There are a lot of moving pieces when landing and experienced pilots juggle all the bits without thinking about what they are doing, or using as a previous poster pointed out "unconscious competence" . This ability only comes with experience. For new pilots you want the fewest things changing as possible hence the value of making the last part of the approach as close to the same as possible and doing the flare and touchdown the same way.
Finally I would like to point out that a "good" landing is not necessarily one with a smooth touchdown. In fact I witnessed that on a recent checkout. The pilot flew a too fast approach and then leveled the aircraft with no proper flare. It few on the runway with all three wheels touching at the same time. The actual touchdown was quite gentle but the landing was terrible.
A "good" landing is one where the touchdown was in the proper tail low attitude with the aircraft aligned with the runway and reasonable close to the chosen touchdown point. This may involve a bit of a thump but that doesn't change the "goodness" of the landing to any appreciable degree.
I would also note that many if not most flight schools specify a final approach speed that is too high. This needlessly prolongs the flare which invites ballooning, proposing in the flare, and nose first touchdown
If there is such a thing as a "magic" bullet to improve landings for new pilots then I would say it is this. "knock 5 kts off your final approach speed"